


Out of the Train

by foldedpages



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is a cinnamon roll, Aged Up, Akuma, Day 1, F/M, Marinette is so ridiculous, Reveal, blood mention, mlfandomweek, some violence but not much, they get stranded, they have a nice talk about each other, theyre like 18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 22:31:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7776211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foldedpages/pseuds/foldedpages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When our heroes follow an akuma out of the city and get stranded, will they find out each other's true identity? (The answer is yes)</p><p>One-shot</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of the Train

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little one shot for the MLfandomweek thing. Day 1: Reveal.

They had never had an akuma actually leave the city before. There was a first time for everything, Chat Noir supposed, and even after four years of battling Hawk Moth’s strange villains, they continued to be surprised. He smiled wistfully. It sure made life more interesting.

Ladybug looked at her partner, his hair blowing wildly in the wind as they clung precariously to a safety ladder at the back of a train. That cat never failed to find something to smile about, and she was grateful for it. For him. This would be terrible to do alone. She smiled at him. Here they were, chasing down an over-the-top old western train robber in the middle of France, and Chat was just excited to be on an adventure.

“I wonder where we’re going,” Chat shouted, his voice almost devoured by the wind and the rumble of the tracks below them. Neither of them had stopped to check the train manifest as they chased the gun-wielding villain into the train station. The akuma caught the train just as it was leaving, and the two superheroes had no choice but to jump on to the back.

It was strange for an akuma to not try to capture their miraculous right away; Hawk Moth had his priorities, and those came before whatever his victims wanted. But this time, the akuma obviously initiated a plan of his own before Hawk Moth could demand his due.

Chat laughed. “What's the likelihood we’re going west?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. Of course a cowboy-style villain would head west. Hopefully they would catch him before he tried to cross the ocean. Actually, she hoped they would catch him at the next stop.

As it turned out, the train was headed west. When the train made a stop, the two boarded and searched the train for the akuma. They found him holding an entire car of people hostage. He wore a large black cowboy hat and a blue bandana over his mouth and nose. Gesturing with one of his pistols as he walked down the aisle, he made the passengers place their jewelry and valuables in a burlap bag.

“Howdy,” Chat waved, announcing their presence.

“Stealing from defenseless travelers?” Ladybug threw her yo-yo, lashing the gun out of the bandit’s hand. “You should be ashamed.”

The bandit shook his right hand with a pained expression and then grabbed his bag with it to free his left hand. He had a gun on his left hip, as well, and his fingers wiggled over it.

“Nice hat!” Chat said, smirking at the black cowboy hat on the villain’s head. “I’ll distract him, my lady, if you would get the passengers to safety?”

“Of course. Do you think it’s in his hat?” Ladybug asked Chat over her shoulder.

“Everybody get down,” Chat ordered, vaulting himself onto the tops of the chairs and running over them on all fours. The bandit shot at him, but Chat was too fast. “Missed me,” he taunted, leaping at him. The bandit stumbled backwards, and Chat snatched the burlap sack from his hand before he could shoot again.

Chat peeked inside the bag and looked at Ladybug with a grin. “I'm rich!”

“Get going, kitty!” Ladybug said, ducking down next to one of the passengers as Chat ran down the aisle waving the sack over his head. Enraged, akuma ran after him. They passed through the doors into the next car, headed towards the last car.

Ladybug reassured the passengers and recommended the dining car before pursing her partner and the bandit akuma.

“He's not a big talker,” Chat told her as she entered the car. “He’s not a great shot, either, so… Agh!” He ducked as a bullet lodged in the fabric of a chair next to him. “Ladybug, he’s gunna shoot me!”

She rolled her eyes. “Separate the car from the train,” she whispered to him as she swung her yo-yo.

Chat Noir went through the door into the space between the cars and used his cataclysm on the floor. He clung to the wall to keep from falling onto the tracks as the floor vanished and the cars separated. It took an impossibly long time for the car to slow down enough for Chat to try to open the door and get back inside.

He thought it was a little funny that as he was getting back into the car one side, the akuma was jumping out of the car on the other. “Ladybug? Ladybug!” Chat called, looking frantically for his partner.

“I’m here, Chat,” Ladybug replied, crawling out from between two of the seats.

“Are you hurt, my lady?” Chat held his hand down, and she took it. He pulled her to her feet and caught her as she fell toward him.

“He wasn't as bad a shot as you thought,” she laughed uncomfortably. “I mean, he's not a good shot, either.” Ladybug’s costume was torn on the side of her left thigh, and blood flowed freely, shining on the already red fabric.

Chat frowned, leaning down to take a closer look at her wound. He knew it probably didn't hurt her much; most of their injuries were only mildly uncomfortable until after their transformations wore off. He looked around in search of something to stop the bleeding. This car had been unoccupied, so there were no loose objects or fabrics to use.

“He’s getting away, Chat,” Ladybug said, pushing his hand away. “Pick me up, we need to follow him!”

Chat Noir swung Ladybug easily onto his back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He gripped her thigh at the wound to try to put pressure on it. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. He jumped gracefully out of the train car and ran after the escaping akuma at top speed. The sharp beep of his miraculous didn't phase him. Nobody hurt his lady like this and got away with it.

When they caught up to the bandit, Ladybug propped herself up with one arm across Chat’s shoulder blades. She used her other arm to fling her yo-yo at this hat. The yo-yo hit the bandit square in the back of the head. His hat fell off his head, and he whirled, dropping the sack of stolen goods he had recovered from the train car. His hands twitched over his holstered guns.

“Put me down, Chat,” Ladybug said quietly. She slid from her partner’s back and stood gingerly, favoring her injured leg not because it hurt a lot but because it felt weaker.

Chat raced forward, throwing himself at the hat. The bandit shot at him, but he dodged, rolling on the ground and yanking the hat in half. No butterflies emerged from it, and he looked up in surprise. Two guns were pointed at his face, but Ladybug had called her lucky charm, and before the bandit could shoot, she swung a red polka-dotted lasso around him and yanked him to to ground.

“You seem a little tied up,” Chat said, walking up to the bandit and yanking the blue bandana from his face.

The villain, who had a large limp mustache beneath the bandana, grumbled at the hero, “go ahead, make my day.”

“I think I found it, LB,” Chat said, ripping the bandana. An akuma flew out, and Ladybug captured it with her yo-yo, purifying it and releasing it back into the wild.

Chat pulled the rope from the bandit, and Ladybug tossed it into the air. Pink light rained down, returning everything to the way it was before the akuma did its damage. The train car they had separated from the train was returned to the rest of the train, which was, unfortunately, kilometers away from them at this point.

The victim, a man with a large, old-fashioned mustache, picked up his blue bandana and looked at it in confusion.

Chat’s ring beeped, and realizing that his transformation was seconds from releasing, he dove behind a bush and pressed himself to the ground.

Ladybug tried not to notice the bright green flash of light that came from behind a shrubbery as she hobbled up to the victim. “It’ll be okay,” she reassured the man, but with a glance at their surroundings, she wasn't actually sure of that. They were basically stranded in the country. She spotted a farmhouse a short distance away and directed him there. “I’m sure they’ll be able to help,” she added. He walked away in a daze as her miraculous beeped.

“Um, Ladybug?” Chat Noir called from his hiding place.

“Yes, Chat?”

“Are you okay?”

“It stopped bleeding when the miraculous light fixed everything,” she replied. She sounded tired, and she knew it. She was also coming to the realization that they were going to know each other’s identity today whether they were ready or not.

“Can I come out?” Chat asked timidly. “I don't mind if you know.”

Ladybug sighed. She knew he didn't mind if she knew who he was under the mask. He had wanted to share their identities since they first became superheroes. “Chat,” Ladybug began, sitting down so that she wasn't standing on her injured leg when her transformation wore off. She could hear him sigh, and she smiled a little because she knew she was about to surprise him. “We have been partners for four years, and you have respected my privacy and my request to keep our identities secret.”

“Of course, my lady.” Chat replied, trying to hide the disappointment in his voice. He was laying on his back now, staring at the blue sky above them. He wondered how they would be able to get back to Paris without discovering each other’s secret. Maybe she was about to tell him that she was leaving without him and that he was to wait a while or go in the opposite direction or some other ridiculous plan to keep them apart forever. He didn't understand why she didn't want to know him so badly.

“I really appreciate your patience with me,” Ladybug said.

“Always,” he sighed. “I would do anything for you, Ladybug.”

“I know.” She paused, unsure of what to say next. “I need to talk to you about why I've never wanted to reveal myself to you.”

“It's for protection, I know. You don't have to explain anything to me, bugaboo, I understand.”

Ladybug’s earrings beeped a final time, and she bit her lip. She needed to be Ladybug to be brave enough to explain this to him. “Well, yes, it's for protection, but I always planned on telling you eventually.”

“Really?” He tried (and failed) to not sound excited.

“You’ve been so much more than a partner to me. You've been my best friend. My hero. You believe in me more than I believe in myself.” She felt like she was about to cry as her transformation dissolved into pink light. Tikki pressed weakly against her, encouraging her to continue. Marinette pulled a cookie from the purse that she had strapped across her small chest. Tikki accepted it happily.

Adrien held his breath, hoping this was going somewhere good. Ladybug had been his partner and best friend and hero for all of these years, too, and it was good to know that she felt the same way about him. But he was also in love with her, and he knew she didn't feel that way about him.

“I've been afraid for you to know who I am,” she said after a moment of awkward silence.

“What? Why?”

“I know how much you admire me, and… and I just didn't want you to be disappointed by the girl behind the mask.” Marinette took a deep breathe to keep from sobbing. “I am afraid you'll think less of me if you know who I really am. I'm not strong or special when I'm not Ladybug.”

Chat stared at the sky, his mouth open in silent surprise. “My lady… we have known each other for years. I trust you with my life on a regular basis. I'm a better person just for knowing you.” He clamped his hand over Plagg’s mouth before Plagg could make a disgusted noise. “Whoever you are under the mask is amazing, and I know that because I know how our powers work, and I know you. I could never be disappointed in who you are.”

Marinette sniffled. Her partner was so sweet sometimes. “It's just… you've always flirted with me and claimed to love me, and I-I know that you probably do that with plenty of girls, a-and…”

“Is that really what you think?” Chat asked quietly. “That I flirt with lots of girls?”

“O-of course. I've always thought you were probably really popular.”

Chat laughed. “Ladybug, what else have you thought about me?”

“W-what?”

“How about this: I’ll tell you what I think you're like under the mask, and you can tell me what you think I'm like, okay? And then we can complain about how we were both wrong.”

“Okay. You go first.”

Adrien smiled at the clouds as he thought about Ladybug. “Well, you’re strong and brave and good. You stand up for what you believe in, and you stand up for other people. You often smell like cookies, so I always thought you could probably bake. You're the most clever person I've ever met, so whatever you do outside of school you're probably really good at. You notice people, like not just that they exist but that they are people, if that makes sense. You're amazing with people, and you like to help them. Sometimes you're a little shy, so you probably have a few close friends and a ton of other people who are happy to know you. You get a little cranky when you're tired, and I think you sleep late because early morning akuma battles are rough on you. You're thoughtful and kind and generous. You have a great sense of humor, and you don't mind sharing the spotlight with me.” He rolled over onto his stomach and put his head on his arms. He could feel his cheeks burning. “And on top of all of that, you're beautiful. Inside and out.”

Marinette felt breathless. “Wow, Chat,” she whispered. “Is that really how you see me?”  
If that's how Chat really saw her, then maybe he truly was in love with Ladybug. She had never even considered that he was serious about that until just now. She wiped a tear from her cheek.

“Yes, it is.” He smiled. “Now, how do you see me?”

She laughed nervously. After such a pretty speech, it wasn't fair that she had to tell him anything. She really had to think hard about her partner to give a good response, and she had always tried to avoid that because it stirred up too many feelings in her chest. “Um… You're almost always find something to smile about. You just smile so easily, you're like a ray of sunshine. You make jokes even in the worst situations. You always know how to make me laugh, even if I don't want to. You flirt a LOT, so I always thought you must flirt with lots of girls. You love adventure, and you're reckless. You're so patient with everyone, even if they're awful, and you're kind and generous. You're bold and fearless. And you're smart, too. You never complain, even when things get bad. You believe in people - like everyone, not just me. You're a lot of fun to be around, so I bet you have a ton of friends and lots of girlfriends. But I've always thought you might be a little lonely and sad, too, and I could never figure out why.” She stopped, still afraid to ask him about his ridiculous declarations of love.

Adrien sighed. “My lady, I've only ever purposely flirted with you. And maybe accidentally one friend a few times. But I don't think she even noticed.”

Marinette frowned. “I know that's not true, Chaton,” she said. “You have flirted with my civilian self multiple times.”

“What?” Adrien frowned. And then suddenly, he realized. “Marinette?”

Marinette clamped her hands over her mouth. “You cannot possibly remember every girl you have flirted with, you silly cat.”

“I definitely do,” he said seriously. “I am in love with you, my lady, and I have been for years. I don't go around flirting with just anybody.”

“You sound upset, Chat,” Marinette wrapped her arms around herself. He never sounded like this unless someone hurt her or someone else. Had she just hurt him without realizing it?

Adrien sat up, no longer caring if she saw him or not. “You don't want me to know who you really are because you think you're disappointing. That upsets me. Especially if you're who I think you are.”

“Who do you think I am?” Marinette squeaked. He had already said her name, but she wanted to hear it again. She couldn't believe that he would ever associate all of those great qualities he told her about with her civilian self. She squeezed her eyes shut when she saw blond hair above the shrub line.

“I can't believe I didn't see it before,” he said. “I feel so dumb.” He sighed. “I want to know. I have to know. Please?”

“We have to expose our identities anyway,” Marinette admitted. “I am probably going to need you to carry me.”

Adrien groaned in frustration. “I want your permission to be able to look at you without your mask,” he grumbled. “I don't want to violate your trust in any way.”

Swallowing hard, Marinette decided to give him permission. She sat up first, keeping her eyes closed. She smoothed down her hair. “O-okay. I think I'm ready. I want you to know.”

Adrien stopped breathing as he turned to look at her. Of course it was her. Now that he knew, he realized it could only ever have been her. “Marinette,” he said, releasing the last bit of air in his lungs.

She cracked open an eye to look at him and then both eyes sprang open at once. They stared at each other, neither of them daring to breathe, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Marinette choked out, “Adrien?”

He smiled and waved his fingers at her. “Hi.”

“Hi.” She bit her lip. Her partner, her best friend, the man she had been afraid to admit any attraction to, was actually the man she thought she loved. What luck.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I'm glad you're you.”

“You don't love me anymore, though, do you?” She asked, her eyes filling with tears.

His smile widened and his cheeks turned pink. “A-actually, uh, you're the only civilian I've ever flirted with. Ever. I mean, I'm really glad you're Ladybug, Marinette.”

Marinette felt her face turn pink and warm. Why had she been so against this? Why couldn't they have done this years ago? She felt like she cheated herself out of something.

“I'm going to pick you up, if that's okay,” Adrien told her, reaching his hand down. “We need to get going if we want to find a town before dark.”

Marinette got hoisted onto Adrein’s back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face between his shoulders. “I'm sorry,” she whispered.

“For what?” He adjusted his hands on her thighs.

“For refusing to share our identities before.”

He shrugged. “You weren't ready before. It's okay. But just so you know, I do really admire Marinette. You're amazing, even without the Ladybug mask. You should know that.” He started walking, and she tried not to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback is always appreciated.
> 
>  
> 
> (Also might be willing to write more for this, who knows)


End file.
